All these many years I’ve wondered, what if Matt Kuchar had taken the bait and run? U.S. Amateur champion in 1997, 21st in the Masters and 14th in the U.S. Open in 1998 — the latter at Olympic Club in San Francisco, which has often been a crashing course for not just a few classic players on their way to the Hall of Fame. Ben Hogan and Arnold Palmer, to cite a couple.
Now, here he was at Royal Birkdale, tuning up for the 1998 British Open, and the merchant hounds were sniffing at his heels. He still had two academic years left at Georgia Tech, and two seasons with a golf team that was having fun. The best I could get it was that one of the golfing agents was offering a $5 million signing bonus and all the free golf balls he could use in his life.
It was a vexing time. Should he, or shouldn’t he? Sincere counseling was flowing in one ear and out the other. The purse was nice — $5 million for a rising junior in college. What a treasure!
Ah, but Matt Kuchar had higher standards and a dwelling lust to finish out his college life. Georgia Tech had a strong team and a coach with a magnetic personality who had a way with his college kids. Puggy Blackmon, in case the name may have slipped you. Matt decided he’d prefer to see their future as a team through to the end. Tell you the truth, I don’t remember how they made out in team competitions, but Matt made out well in the classroom. But where were the agents? They had fled in other directions, chasing other late-rising college hotshots.
Matt? Well, he took a job in the insurance business, sitting behind a desk. I know, for when I tried to call him that’s where I located him. He got some tournament exemptions and actually turned pro in the Australian Open in 2000. Within a year he had his PGA card, earned through sponsors exemptions. He had stayed true to his Georgia Tech team, had his degree, and now he was on his way.
He won his first Tour tournament in 2002, the Honda Classic in Florida. But maybe that was too much too soon. Two years later he had fallen back to the Nationwide Tour. But he earned his way back to the big Tour. This time there would be no retreat. I don’t know that I’ve keep books on young pros who couldn’t miss, but I have had none of whom I was so positive about as Matt Kuchar. And through it all, lows and highs, he has never lost that boyish smile and beaming personality, and if he were still selling insurance, he’d get my business.
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